Local author ‘finds’ herself experiencing a year of firsts including new women’s lit entry ‘Finding Home’

Published December 2, 2012 at 11:11 am

With nearly 30 published books under her belt, Lois Greiman, of Dayton, has written about everything from a psychologist and lieutenant to princesses, witches, cowgirls and werewolves (even before they became all the rage with the “Twilight” lovers). Twenty years into her writing career, Greiman is still finding new ways to bring her work to life and bring it to readers.

For starters, she’s returning to her North Dakota cattle ranch roots for her next series. The Hope Springs series begins with the book, “Finding Home,” released Tuesday, Nov. 27, published by Kensington Books.

“It has a lot of my childhood in it,” said Greiman, whose book follows the story of hard-working but soft hearted Casie Carmichael who plans to sell off a run-down ranch in Hope Springs, South Dakota that winds up in her possession. Yet, something continues to tug at Casie from the horse that needs rescuing and an exasperating old flame that turns her life upside down to a trio of kids that need her help. Casie learns about healing hearts and second chances, bringing readers along for the ride.

“This is a book about hope and the invincibility of the human spirit,” said Greiman. “Casie is a very kind character that draws people that are needy. In the book, she finds her place and gets her legs.”

Although she is an established romance, paranormal and mystery writer, this is Greiman’s first foray into women’s literature. It will be offered as an e-book and for the first time for Greiman, as an audio book.

This is also the first time she has written about one of her own deepest passions — horses. As the owner of several horses, many of them rescues, there is a horse-rescuing scene in the book that is ripped very closely from Greiman’s own life.

“You can’t create something out of nothing,” said Greiman, who says a writer needs to “live some” in order to bring experience and depth to their characters.

Greiman has certainly done a lot of living. In addition to her ranch days, she has professionally trained Arabian horses, modeled high fashion, was a fitness instructor, a veterinary assistant, rescues horses, raised a family and just this year, became a grandmother.

Although “Finding Home” hit shelves this week, Greiman is not sitting on her laurels waiting for readers and reviewers to sing her praises — which they often do, having received numerous awards and appearing on Barnes and Noble’s Best Selling Romance list with past books. She has already submitted the follow up manuscript to “Finding Home” to her editor. It has an expected publish date just six months from now with the third in the trilogy due out six months after that.

Greiman is also working on writing her 8th “Chrissy” mystery book featuring her popular characters, psychologist Chrissy McMullen and Lieutenant Rivera. It is a series that was originally published by Bantam Dell, a division of Random House in 2005. However, when the publisher told her they would be discontinuing the series, earlier this year she went ahead and tried her hand at self-publishing the 7th entry, “Uncorked.”

“I’ve had amazing success with it,” said Greiman.

Not one to put her writing in cruise control, Greiman has also begun writing a military suspense novel that starts out in Tehran.

“I didn’t even know where Tehran was when I first started,” said Greiman. “But I think this is the best thing I’ve ever written.”

Another project in the cooker for Greiman is a collaborative manuscript with her daughter, Tara Daun, about witches set in Minnesota. This is their first effort at writing together.

The year 2012 has definitely been all about embracing new experiences for Greiman and with her ambition and prolific writing she is sure to continue discovering even more in 2013 and bring those discoveries to her readers.

Where to find “Finding Home”

“Finding Home” can be found now at all major booksellers and online at www.amazon.com.

Lois Greiman will also be participating in the following book signings: